Privacy/Cookie Policy

Learn how your data is used by this website.

A new cookie regulation in the UK called the ePrivacy Directive has come in. It's purpose is to make website owners
communicate clearly and transparently about how they are using cookies, so that web users are better informed about how their
information is being used.

The aim of this page is to provide clear information to you about the cookies and advertising methods that this website uses, so that you
can easily understand how your data is used, and make an informed decision about whether you want to use it or not.

Quick Overview

What you need to know, in 3 paragraphs

This website doesn't set any of it's own cookies, but it does work with third parties who do. To make money, we work on an
Affiliate Marketing basis.
When you click through some of the links on this site, a third party cookie is created on your computer by the affiliate network (Amazon, or Webgains) so they know
that we have referred you. If you go on to buy a product from the merchant website in question, we earn a small commission of typically 5% of the value of the sale.

This website also uses Google AdSense adverts. Google uses cookies to more effectively target their adverts. We also use Google Analytics to measure how many
visitors we get. Google Analytics creates third party cookies to provide some of it's core reporting features. We do not store any information about you ourselves.

Finally, we use the AddThis.com plugin, which allows you to quickly share our web pages with friends on social networks. AddThis use a cookie to track and report
how our content are being shared.

What is a Cookie?

The Different Types

A cookie is a small file containing some information, that a website transfers to the cookie folder of the
web browser on your computer. When the browser returns to the same website, the information in the cookie can be
retrieved by the website and used to recognise the user.

A cookie might typically contain data such as the domain name from which it came, a unique number as an identifier,
some data related to its purpose such as your preferences on the website, and the lifetime (expiry) of the cookie.

There are 3 main types of cookies:

1. Session Cookies

The lowest level of cookie, which allows a website to identify you as a user and remember you from page to
page within the website. These expire as soon as you close your browser, or after a short period of typically
20 minutes of inactivity. This can be likened to storing something in short term memory.

2. Persistent Cookies

What most people think of when they say "Cookie". These are the small text files that are dropped into the cookies folder
of your web browser, by a website. They can contain information for the longer term about your preferences on a website
for instance.

3. Third Party Cookies

These are persistent cookies from any other domain, such as third party services like Google Analytics.

What if I don't accept Cookies?

The Impact

The vast majority of websites will use cookies in some shape or form. They are an invaluable part of the programmers toolset,
enabling websites to offer advanced features such as shopping baskets, customised content and other common functions.

If you don't accept any cookies then many websites will not perform as they should, and you may not be able to complete orders or
use the features of a website.

How can I Disable Cookies?

Disallowing, and Deleting Cookies

You can also delete cookies, which deletes any existing cookies in your web browser's cookie folder, but unless you disallow them they will
reappear next time you visit a website.

The majority of browsers allow you to be selective about disallowing different types of cookies, so you could disallow persistent cookies
but allow session cookies for instance.

Does this website use Cookies?

Our Activities

This website does not create any Session Cookies or Persistent Cookies of it's own, but it does use several common Third Party Cookies that you should
be aware of.

1. Affiliate Marketing Cookies (Third Party)

We provide links on this website to products which are available to buy from Amazon, and occasionally other online merchants. When these links are clicked,
either Amazon or the Affiliate Network (Webgains) create a persistent cookie on your computer. In the case of Amazon this lasts around 24 hours, and
for other merchants it can vary but is typically 30 days.

If you go on to buy the product, we earn a small commission of typically 5% for referring the sale. For more information about Affiliate Marketing,
the IAB have produced a very good guide, the IAB Guide to Performance Marketing.

The Amazon Advertising blocks are at the bottom of our review pages. Occasionally we use affiliate links within website reviews themselves. Affiliate networks may also use some cookie-less tracking methods which involve storing your IP Address.

2. Google Cookies (Third Party)

We serve Google AdSense advertising blocks on this website. Google may create third party cookies to target their adverts most effectively. This is often geo-targetting, so
that advertisers can serve their adverts to consumers in a particularly country for instance.

Google operate a revenue share system, so when you click on a Google AdSense advert on this website, we earn a percentage of the Cost per Click paid by the advertiser.

We also use Google Analytics on this website. Google drop analytics cookies in order to be able to provide reporting on how users have interacted with the website.

3. AddThis.com Cookies (Third Party)

We make use of the widely used plugin from AddThis, which allows you to quickly share our web pages with your choice of over 300 social networks.

AddThis.com drop a third party cookie to track and report back on how our content is being shared, and on which social network. This is statistical data only,
with no specifics as to your identity.

List of Cookies used by this website

Specific Details

Type

Name

Description

Third Party

__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz

Google Analytics uses these cookies to define user sessions, and provide core features in its Analytics reports. Google drops and updates these cookies only for the purposes of collecting data for these reports.

Third Party

doubleclick

Google AdSense uses the DoubleClick cookie on AdSense content partner sites such as this. Google uses it to serve more relevant ads, limit the number of times a given ad is shown to you, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

Third Party

wgs, wgdc, wgc, wgi, 1234.sol

The Webgains Affiliate network uses these cookies to track clicks on affiliate links, and banners at the top of the website. See the Webgains Tracking Cookies list for further details of what each one does.

Third Party

Tracked within Amazon shopping session cookies

Our Amazon Associates link blocks contain a unique ID which identifies us as an Amazon affiliate. Amazon uses that ID to embed details about this website being the referrer into the Amazon shopping session. This happens when you click on our Amazon product links, banners and widgets that you see on the bottom of the pages on this website.

Third Party

__atuvc1

The AddThis.com cookie which is used to provide reporting to us on how people are sharing Great Website Guide's pages on social networks, using the quick share buttons at the top right of the right hand column on review pages.

Privacy/Cookie Policy

Find out more how this site works, and how your data is used. Read more.